Perplexing whole house wiring and/or V-Portal problem?

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 11, 2008 Posts: 6

Well after months of having it work ok the problem is back. At least I now have somewhere to start trouble shooting. The problem re-occurred last Friday after a Time Warner installer came by to give me cable cards for my Tivo and wound up having to re ground my cable connection. I might be just coincidence, but after he ran a ground from my cable line to the power box (apparently my cable tv/internet line was ungrounded) the problem with error code 013 started occurring again. I'm going to try to see if the advise for limiting RF interference http://www.vonage-forum.com/home-wiring-installation-guide-page-two.html and running capacitors to ground off my line fixes this high voltage problem.

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 08, 2009 Posts: 2

Just got Vonage activated last week.
I am also experiencing error 013 when connecting to the house wiring.
Device works fine when plugging the phone straight in, but when plugging into the wiring, I get the dreadful error.

If I reboot the device, it will work for the first phone call, then no more dial tone and the error 013 comes on.

House is isolated from the Telco Demarc (we had Comcast Voip, and the modem is now gone).

I purchased the refurb Vonage modem, so perhaps it has the older firmware?

Thanks in advance,
Paul

Posts: 22 · Vonage Forum Associate Joined: Feb 24, 2009 Posts: 22

Suggest you disconnect all your home wiring--Hook Up one at a time and test.

Your Vonage adapter (New or used) if connected to the internet will update the firmware first once it has connected to the Vonage server--after that you will see a handset icon --meaning that you are ready.

Line 1 Wiring Error [Code 013]
Phone port 1 may be connected to live telco line. Plug phone directly to green port 1.
You'll typically see this message if Phone Port 1 of the V-Portal is connected directly to a phone jack in your home and your home phone wiring hasn't been completely disconnected from the traditional telephone company. To resolve the issue:

Plug your phone directly into green Phone Port 1.
Start at the main menu and choose System > Diagnostics > Test Phone Ports > Run Tests? to run the phone ports diagnostic test and determine if the error has been corrected.
Note: You will not be able to make or receive calls on Phone Port 1 or 2 during the short time the test is running.

Start using Vonage service when the Phone 1 icon displays.
If you would like to use your V-Portal with the existing telephone wiring in your home, see Home Wiring for do-it-yourself advice on distributing Vonage service to all of your phone jacks. If you’d prefer to hire someone to adjust your home wiring, consult a professional electrician or telephone technician. Vonage offers a professional installation service in many geographic areas. See Professional Installation Basics for more information.

You might also see this message if you've used a four-wire telephone cord to connect your FAX machine to an active green port of your V-Portal. Using a standard two-wire telephone cord normally resolves this problem. After you've replaced the telephone cord, run the phone ports diagnostic test (System > Diagnostics > Test Phone Ports > Run Tests?). Start using Vonage service when the Phone 1 icon displays.

Tip: You’ll typically use a standard two-wire phone cord with your V-Portal. For phone cord recommendations, see What kind of telephone cord should I use in the phone ports of the V-Portal?

Posts: 5 · New Forum Member Joined: Aug 11, 2005 Posts: 5

Hi there -
I have a nearly identical problem.

I have physical house lines, and two Vonage phone numbers using one VDV21 Vonage adapter. THe funny thing is that I only have 1 phone physically plugged into the physical lines driven by the Vonage adapter (it drives my house lines from a different room than the phone).

I experience Error 013 Only on Line 1 when I reboot the Vonage VDV21 adapter with the phone lines connect. If I remove Line 1 and Keep LIne 2, everything is ok. Most time, i just plug Line 1 back in once I reboot the adapter. Today though, it took many tries for this to work. Many times, I did get dial tone, hung up and then got the error code on Line 13. I finally got it to work but have on good reason.

SO - why is this happening? Line 1 and Line 2 see the same amount of un-loaded house wiring. The error code is always on line 1 and never on line 2.

Any advice? BTW the adapter arrived in February 2009 new replacing their Dlink adapter which wouldn't properly pass DTMF tones to IVR conference / voicemail systems.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Guy

Posts: 2 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 08, 2009 Posts: 2

gschlact wrote:

Hi there -
I have a nearly identical problem.

I have physical house lines, and two Vonage phone numbers using one VDV21 Vonage adapter. THe funny thing is that I only have 1 phone physically plugged into the physical lines driven by the Vonage adapter (it drives my house lines from a different room than the phone).

I experience Error 013 Only on Line 1 when I reboot the Vonage VDV21 adapter with the phone lines connect. If I remove Line 1 and Keep LIne 2, everything is ok. Most time, i just plug Line 1 back in once I reboot the adapter. Today though, it took many tries for this to work. Many times, I did get dial tone, hung up and then got the error code on Line 13. I finally got it to work but have on good reason.

SO - why is this happening? Line 1 and Line 2 see the same amount of un-loaded house wiring. The error code is always on line 1 and never on line 2.

Any advice? BTW the adapter arrived in February 2009 new replacing their Dlink adapter which wouldn't properly pass DTMF tones to IVR conference / voicemail systems.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Guy

After spending an hour with Vonage phone support, I gave up.
They wanted me do go to the NID with a screwdriver to check the wiring, even after I had told them that the wiring is totally isolated from the PSTN (and having had Comcast Voip w/o any issues).

Shortly after hanging up, I placed a call with AT&T and ported my number to them.

Tried and tried, but I guess this is not for me.

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Mar 24, 2009 Posts: 1

Ok. I also expended like 40 minutes talking to the tech service.... When you pull out this problem is like talking to a wall, first they wanted me to check if the wiring was really disconnected fro the telco lines, then was my wiring, then the way my phones were connected... it went ike that for 40 minutes, when they recommended me to use only one phone I just said thanks and terminated the call. They would not reimburse me if I buy on my own some other brand instead the v-portal, even if it works and they wouldn't send any replacement other than another v-portal

So next day I brought home an spectrum analyzer from work and hooked it up to the phone wiring. As I though the wires were picking up the RF signal from my wireless router which is just a few inches away, 32 microvolts 800Mz plus some other RF garbage was enough to trigger the 013 error, a simple RF cap grounded to the TV cable ground on the outside end of the line did the trick, no more 013 for me.

I just can't believe that Vonage, a company that provides an outstanding and fair priced service in on other areas is loosing clients over a stupid problem like this, a few cents capacitor installed on the factory could fix the problem for good.

Carl.-

Posts: 1 · New Forum Member Joined: Apr 06, 2009 Posts: 1

dlpt2a wrote:

As I though the wires were picking up the RF signal from my wireless router which is just a few inches away, 32 microvolts 800Mz plus some other RF garbage was enough to trigger the 013 error, a simple RF cap grounded to the TV cable ground on the outside end of the line did the trick, no more 013 for me.

I'm thinking of switching to the new V-Portal thing; I've had a Cisco ATA-186 for years which doesn't have enough oomph to power the house wiring. I'm setting up a wiring closet in the basement now and I'd like to relocate my cablemodem/router/VoIP/etc there and ideally power the house wiring from there as well.

Should I experience this issue, Carl's explanation sounds like the most likely culprit. I can easily install a cap in the jack behind the switch plate going to the adaptor box. So: Carl, what did you do, exactly? I would guess a ~33pF cap between tip (green) and cable ground? Or one of those three-wire RF isolator dealies perhaps?

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 3

With AT&T announcing they are pulling the plug on IP telephone service, I had my number ported to Vonage.

I removed my AT&T telephone adapter and installed the Vonage VDV21-VD using all the same cables.

The adapter went through the setup and all seemed fine. But, when I pick up a phone in the house, I hear dial tone with a female voice over it telling me I don't appear to be connected to the correct phone port.

If I plugged a phone directly into the VDV21-VD it would work fine. But with the house wiring connected, the problem came back.

A long phone call with a very nice person at Vonage yielded no solution. Then today I read all the messages in this thread. This sparked a memory. I had a filter lying in a toolbox for years. I used to use these filters to clean up noise and RF interference on phone lines connected to two-way radio systems years ago.

I found one of the filters, plugged it into the jack on the back of the box, then plugged my house wiring in. Immediately, the problem was eliminated.

The filter I am using is a K-com RF-1. Specifically the version I used is Model RF-1 Single Line Modular 0.5 - 3.0 MHz. Some dealers of ham radio equipment sell them. You can see it pictured here:

http://tinyurl.com/o46akg

Maybe this will help someone else.

RikR

Posts: 227 · Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 4:55 pm Post subject: Re: fix for wiring problems

RikR wrote:

The adapter went through the setup and all seemed fine. But, when I pick up a phone in the house, I hear dial tone with a female voice over it telling me I don't appear to be connected to the correct phone port.

The phone 1 jack on the back of the VDV21-VD adaptor delivers both phone 1 (pins 3 and 4) and phone 2 (pins 2 and 5) to whatever is plugged in to it. Your house wiring was connecting these two circuits together somehow. You were getting dial tone on phone 1 and the voice message on phone 2 that is intended to show that you're using the wrong port.

RikR wrote:

I had a filter lying in a toolbox for years... I found one of the filters, plugged it into the jack on the back of the box, then plugged my house wiring in. Immediately, the problem was eliminated.

Your single-line filter, apparently, makes no connection to pins 2 and 5 in the phone 1 jack. Any single-pair line cord would have solved the problem in the same way.

Posts: 3 · New Forum Member Joined: May 12, 2009 Posts: 3

That certainly makes sense. I'll go back and have another look. The filter fixed it, but perhaps not for the reason I thought. Thanks.